Skype for Business Cloud PBX Saves REVShare $1,493 Monthly

Company: REVShare
Industry: Advertising
Employees: 50
Overview: REVShare began to explore new phone systems solutions after discovering a major security flaw in their previous system.
Solution: Deploying Skype for Business Cloud PBX and Microsoft Enterprise E5

REVShare is a leading TV advertising broker that distributes advertisers’ cost per acquisition commercials across a vast network of television stations.

Based in Temecula, CA, REVShare also has offices in New York and San Diego while roughly 20% of employees work from home.

To connect remote employees during weekly meetings, REVShare used RingCentral, a cloud-based phone system provider, for voice audio meetings and screen sharing.

But due to a major security flaw in RingCentral’s portal (and no immediate timeline for when it would be patched), REVShare began to explore new phone systems solutions.

Because the company had already adopted Office 365, Senior Systems Administrator James Enriquez chose to revisit Skype for Business Cloud PBX and the Enterprise E5 license to see if integrating the company’s voice and business productivity solutions made sense. After crunching the numbers, James realized that moving platforms would result in enormous savings for the company.

The ROI of Skype for Business Cloud PBX Vs. RingCentral

Like any IT investment, you need to evaluate ROI to determine whether changing platforms would be worthwhile. James calculated the breakeven point for migrating to Skype for Business Cloud PBX and found the company would save $1,493.28 every month.

REVShare also chose to purchase new phones for 48 users and 3 conference phones. But even with these upfront costs, the company would still break even in less than 11 months and continue accruing savings each month after that.

To gain the cloud calling functionalities of Skype for Business, REVShare had to upgrade its licenses to Enterprise E5. Here’s the breakdown of savings for REVShare’s 67 users:

Added cost per user for the E5 license: $27

Total monthly cost of Skype cloud PBX: $1,809

Total monthly cost of RingCentral: $3,302.28

Monthly savings with Skype cloud PBX: $1,493.28

Yearly savings with Skype cloud PBX: $17,919.36

The hardware and labor required to install the new phone system would add $16,051.08 to the upfront cost. When you divide that one-time cost by the monthly savings of $1,493, the company would begin to see a positive ROI in just 10.75 months and save $1,493 each month after that.

Migrating From RingCentral to Skype for Business Cloud PBX

REVShare had worked with Agile IT to successfully migrate from Exchange to Office 365 in the past and chose Agile IT as its cloud partner to deploy Skype for Business cloud PBX.

The actual migration process was simple, James said. The team experienced no major issues or outages.

In just a couple days, REVShare had numbers available to assign to users. About 4 days later, the numbers were in the system and live on Microsoft’s end, so employees could begin utilizing the phone system.

“I would absolutely recommend working with Agile IT,” James said. “They’re experts in Office 365 and the Microsoft environment. Through conversations with other resellers, I definitely see Agile IT as superior in knowledge and experience.”

Added Functionalities of Skype Cloud PBX and the E5 License

Beyond a positive ROI and nearly $1,500 in monthly savings, Skype for Business cloud PBX also offered added functionalities that would save REVShare employees time, money and needless headaches.

These included:

• Streamlined Provisioning for New User Accounts: With one comprehensive business productivity solution, provisioning new user accounts is now a one-step process for REVShare, saving the IT team considerable time.
• Easy Meeting Scheduling and Access: Previously, REVShare used GoToMeeting to schedule meetings. Because the process involved multiple steps, users had to contact the secretary every time they had to schedule a meeting. Due to the ease of scheduling in Skype for Business cloud PBX, users can now eliminate this time-consuming step and set up meetings on their own.
• The built-in presence native to Skype for Business also provides insight into user availability across Outlook, calendars, chat and more, further simplifying the scheduling process. Knowing when others are busy or on a call ensures users don’t interrupt one another during important meetings.
• With Better Together Over Ethernet, REVShare employees can now call into weekly meetings from their desktop phones with just one touch.
• Reduced Monthly Phone System Costs: From a cost perspective, bundling the company’s cloud-based phone system has resulted in $1,493.28 in monthly savings compared to RingCentral. Because upgrading to the Office 365 Enterprise E5 license only set the company back an additional $27 per user per month, the move cut monthly phone system costs more than 50%.

Since migrating to Office 365, REVShare has also begun to use SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Exchange Online, Dynamics CRM online, Azure and Azure AD Premium for mobile and desktop management.

With Azure alone, REVShare has saved thousands in monthly infrastructure and bandwidth. As a TV advertising broker, REVShare transcodes and sends large high-definition digital commercials to TV stations that take up hundreds of megabytes. This routinely bogged down the Internet, so the team considered adding a dedicated Internet line. With Azure, the team can now spin up powerful VMs to handle the workload and deprovision them afterward, eliminating added storage and maintenance costs.

Want to see how much you can save on monthly voice and phone system costs with Office 365 Cloud PBX and PSTN calling? Schedule a call with Agile IT today!